Naperville Central's Roberts eats up shot put at Metea Valley invitational
Nowhere in high school sports does food provide the incentive it does for the weight men of track and field.
Naperville Central throws coach Phil Allen and Redhawks assistant David Goodalis told Omarr Roberts they'd buy him a pizza if he won an event. The big junior supersized his shot put to claim what the coaches believed was the program's first invitational title in the event since 2012.
Seeded third at the Metea Valley Invitational on Saturday, Roberts won the title at 47 feet, 9.5 inches, and presumably the pie.
"Yes, I'm going to make sure," Roberts said.
"I'd say the coaches really helped to set me on a path to do good," said Roberts, a track newcomer who added 7 feet to his prior outdoor best. "When I had a good throw they hyped me up so I did better every time."
Meanwhile, Wheaton Warrenville South took the whole enchilada, winning its second straight invite with 125 points to Plainfield North's 84.5 and Hoffman Estates' 82.5. Naperville Central placed third with 68 points, while Metea Valley and Marmion finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the eight-team meet.
"I think we're in pretty good position," said WW South senior Kyle Thompson, third in the 1,600.
Strong winds threatened to send athletes all sorts of angles. WW South's Tom Ansiel was in and out of pole vault long enough to win at 14 feet, 7 inches. Joe Zubak, followed by teammate Colton McGlynn in the 300 hurdles, earned the win despite a gust that "lifted me up a little bit and pushed (me) completely forward."
Distance runners learned bravery counted for squat against a wind that, to quote one overheard runner, "punched me in the chest."
Naperville Central sophomore Thomas Shilgalis paced Marmion's Michael Ronzone in the 3,200 then capitalized to win in 9 minutes, 50.40 seconds, the sole runner to surpass 10 minutes.
"I waited to tire him out," Shilgalis said.
WW South senior Joe Kratz watched and learned to win the 800, his first invitational title.
"I just saw that the kids who went out first kind of ended up dying off," Kratz said. "So I just thought it'd be smart to draft off someone for at least the first half of the race."
Early in the meet Metea Valley's Alonzo Taylor-Jones sang the national anthem with teammates Matt Webb and Prithvi Bandaru. Near the end Taylor-Jones won the 200-meter dash in 22.79 seconds, Webb in third and another Mustang, Ben Loutsis, in fifth.
"This meet is always kind of iffy with the weather situation, especially wind," said Taylor-Jones, second in the 100 at 11.22. "But to me it's more like a workout day because we are running into 20-something miles per hour wind, and so it really just pushes you, basically, to get faster times for your next meet."
Marmion was the sole Class 2A team in the meet, and for runners such as Ben Powell, Quinn Gratz, Michael Ronzone and Seth Groom to place fifth in the 1,600-meter relay finale pleased Cadets coach Dan Thorpe.
"We know who we are sprint-wise, but if we can execute and get the baton around in big meets that will correlate to a fourth, fifth, and we're OK with that with some of the talent that we do have. We've got to just continue to score at every opportunity. Compete and score," Thorpe said.
Ronzone did that in the 3,200 with his second-place time of 10:00.01 seconds. So did junior Zach Urwiler in the 100, reaching the finals and placing sixth. Individually, Gratz took third in the 800-meter run. Freshman pole vaulter Andrew Saloga was cleared to compete on the varsity level, and would have place third there at 12-1.
Marmion junior Seth Groom should compete and score in any meet he enters including the state series. Third last year in the Class 2A triple jump and a three-event winner at the Top Times indoor meet this March, at Metea Groom finished second in the 400, won long jump at 22-6 and won triple jump at 46-4, nearly 3 feet farther then the runner-up.
Groom's training technique this week included sitting in a chair in the jump pits. He could have used a chair on Saturday as he waited for any other jumper to approach his marks and force him back into action. The junior made two attempts in each discipline, each longer than any other athlete's best marks.
Inactivity can pose its own problems, though they were unapparent.
"Then you start watching everyone and you start looking at their form and you start thinking about yours, over-criticizing or not criticizing yourself enough," Groom said. "So then you just start thinking way too much."